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Twilight 2000 2nd Edition/1998
The winter of 1997/1998 is particularly cold. Civilian war casualties in industrialised nations stand at around 15% * Famine is everywhere. Only the severe cold delays simultaneous epidemics * As spring arrives, the unburied dead create world-wide epidemics of plague, typhoid, cholera, typhus and many other diseases ** Once the epidemics have run their course, the global casualty rate is 50%, though military casualty rates are lower than those of civilians * France and Belgium, having been hit lightest, close their borders to the flood of refugees ** Military units begin firing on refugees trying to enter the countries ** The French army moves to the Rhine to secure a solid geographical barrier * The average strength of NATO divisions has fallen to around 8,000. For US divisions, the figure is around 4,000 * Warsaw Pact divisions vary wildly in size, from 500 to 10,000. Most are in the 2,000 - 4,000 range * Lack of fuel, spare parts and ammunition paralyses the armies * The partisans in Romania and Yugoslavia are relatively untouched, while many Warsaw Pact units have been destroyed ** The Romanians and Yugoslavians start re-forming regular units, though they are still structured to live off the land and use captured equipment * The Italian army forms the satellite states of Croatia, Serbia and Slovenia. The Greek army annexes Macedonia ** Albania, protesting the annexation of Macedonia, withdraws from the alliance and begins sporadic attacks on the Greek army ** Ethnic Albanian partisan units from Macedonia are formed and start to attack Greek military units * Many Italian and Hungarian units are moved from the Balkans to Czechoslovakia and southern Germany * In North America, hungry refugees start crossing the Rio Grande. Most remaining US military forces are deployed to the south west to deal with the crisis, under the orders of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (now the de facto US government) ** Food riots and violence are met with military force ** The Mexican government protests and moves military forces north of the Rio Grande ** More US units are moved south ** The fighting escalates to open warfare. Mexican armoured columns drive toward Arkansas and California ** The front stabilises in north east Texas and central California * As military units withdraw from other areas of the US, civil disorder and anarchy increases * In June, Warsaw Pact forces in southern Germany renew their offensive in an attempt to capture the surviving industrial sites in central Germany ** NATO forces reform a coherent front, and the offensive stalls along a line from Frankfurt to Fulda * In August, NATO launches an offensive from the area of Karl Marx Stadt, driving south towards Czechoslovakia ** Warsaw Pact forces in central Germany withdraw to Czechoslovakia, operating a scorched earth scorched earth policy ** The Yugoslavian army drives north in an attempt to link up with NATO, but is halted near Lake Balaton and thrown back ** The NATO offensive slows and is stopped. Troops are moved to garrison the devastated south of Germany ** An attempt by NATO to force the Alpine passes into Italy fails * In autumn, NATO and the Warsaw Pact initiate a short and weak nuclear exchange, targeting surviving industrial centres in the UK and Italy * Fighting runs down to local skirmishing as winter approaches